show-and-tell

[marble oracle]

After long time and do not really know how 😀 , I finally made this display work with CircuitPython. It is ESP32-S3 Dev module with e-paper driver hat, but I´m making my own board for it . Many thanks to @lapis jasper and @hardy veldt for their big help. Now I have to make work same size display, but with lower resolution.

[lapis jasper]

Nice! Glad you got it working

[empty basin]

Been having fun with the new printer at work

[onyx laurel]

we've got one of those flexi-dino-guys on display in our Create Space in the library I work at

[onyx laurel]

Does your 3D printer allow you to use multiple colors on one project? Our flashforge and lulzbot might be able to swtich out midprint, but I don't even know for sure. We don't do it for patrons at least.

[golden cipher]

This is pretty cool. Feels like something I'd wire a bunch of my lights and lamps and such to in the basement and mount it to a wall. Any indicator of like fuses or anything? Maybe it's an audio switchboard of some sort?

[carmine flare]

I haven’t had time to open it yet. If there are fuses in there, they aren’t user friendly to repair 🙂

It has a little stand with feet on the back, so it sits nicely on a desk.

[pallid saffron]

somewhere in the dim-dark recesses of my brain is telling me that it's a lighting control board (e.g. less than stadium size, possibly high school auditorium?)

[empty basin]

Ours is capable of automatically switching colors mid print, it can even do color changes not on layer shift, but it needs to purge filament every layer there is a change. Hello to another fellow library staff member!

[hardy veldt]

Made a V3 of my LED holders when I realized you can totally solder resistors standing up. Freed up another column as a result. Didn't have to make this many but iterating on the design was some good fun/practice.

[shy ore]

My very first PCB, a basic board to simplify running power to a bunch of buttons, breakout boards, etc. A lane for each of ground, battery, and MCU regulator output. Decided it was time to learn KiCad after spending hours fussing with splicing and questionable soldering hacks. A power rail featherwing would be awesome!

[pulsar mortar]

Well its finally done 🙂 My air fryer turned coffee roaster

now to work on the worst part: documentation

[wide brook]

Congrats! It looks like an industrial automaton

[pulsar mortar]

yea the original air fryer looked odd too lol. Looks like something you would see in starwars

[wide brook]

You need to add a big honkin' EMERGENCY STOP button to it

[pulsar mortar]

lol that does nothing other than display a message "what emergency?"

[wide brook]

I mean, why not

It'd complete the aesthetic

[pulsar mortar]

I am sort of working on V2 for the controls only because of the way I communicate with the TFT is kind of funky. Its over USART and its the only option I had, so I had to use two different compliers because XC8 doesnt have support for a GLCD (and I dont think I could have found a library-Im also a tad lazy, I wanted that work to be done for me).

There will be a different TFT (greyscale) since this one gets funky with colors and there is much being displayed either. I might also try to mechanically design a roaster instead of using an airfryer as this is kind of big, but Ive already used it once and it does the job (currently drinking a roast I did Wednesday)

[peak bolt]

I built a travel sized air conditioner for camping. Bike battery plus buck boost plus peltier cooler and a lot of tape. Blows hot air out one end and cool air out the other, lowers temp by 4 degrees, which isn’t much but not bad for a prototype.

[clever stone]

The Adafruit seesaw enables creating I2C client devices.

If you’re interesting in programming AVR chips like the ATtiny1616 but prefer to skip the Arduino framework, then take a look at “AVR Coding 102: Creating I2C Client devices”.

“AVR Coding 101” covered the basics from blink and charlieplexing to timers and Serial UART. The 102 content is a bit more DIY but includes multiple examples for creating I2C client devices - displays, keypads, encoder panels, touch controllers, and bar meters. There is even a full example using the ACK1 (AVR Coding Kit) - the same hardware used for the 101 lessons.

The AVR Coding 102 takes a different path from the seasaw library. It is less general purpose and focuses more on the development of higher level devices.

All the content is under the MIT license.

https://gitlab.com/bradanlane/avrcoding102

[lucid bloom]

My home assistant data got one of the food pantrys ac units fixed the other unit is not capable of maintaining temperature and so it is being replaced early next week. I provided the landlord with the data from home assistant and it went over really well. These images are of a working unit 9 and a not so working unit 8.

[lucid bloom]

This issue has likely been occurring for years it's just no one is usually in the building in the mid late afternoon. It happens every time the outside temp goes over 74F.

[calm badge]

nano MUD w/MCP for displaying 2d pictures of the items/monsters

[carmine flare]

Update: removing the top panel reveals this unit to be a 1985 “MICRO CONSOLE” from a company called Gilderfluke, which seems to still be in business! They make animation and show control hardware.

Turns out these are displays, but not a type I’m familiar with:

[dark cairn]

looks like 7seg, but like, I have never seen ones like this.

The pcb thooo, that is definately older than me.

[pallid saffron]

it's scratching something in the back of my head

[crystal pier]

Are they neon?

[carmine flare]

I don’t think so! But I haven’t seen them powered on either.

[north mural]

You can still get switches like that from the same company that makes the adafruit step switches. Swixtronics or something like that.

looks like it could make a really neat step sequencer.

if it was for light show controls should be pretty easy to do. does it have DMA protocol plugs for intelligent lighting?

[carmine flare]

I think the ports are IDE, to connect to an IBM-PC 🙂

[crystal pier]

IDE is pretty disc-specific. I would expect it to be either ISA or parallel port.

(likely the latter as the earlier ones especially were all outputs)

[north mural]

ah i missed that. interesting piece of equipment.

[carmine flare]

You’re right, the connectors are confusingly similar

[feral orchid]

I think they're just LEDs

There's an IC in there that lights the LEDs up

With certain control signals probably

Maybe integrated decoder?

[eternal maple]

Those look like LED displays made by Hewlett Packard. I recall two versions, one with a parallel binary input (BCD, octal, or hex) and one with a serial counter input.

[carmine flare]

This seems very possible. My dreams of repurposing this board are dwindling 😂

[north mural]

My assortment of temp sensors from left to right (NIST traceable thermometer, freezer thermometer, feather weather station (with openweathermap data in blue), antonki temp display, echo show)

OpenWeatherMap and Echo Show are saying it's 71F. If that was the case I would be wearing a sweater or hoodie in Florida. They're about 10F incorrect.

My feather weather and antonki temp sensors are the most accurate against the NIST thermometer.

[pallid saffron]

well, it also depends on when "x" (for whichever provider) was updated -- iirc openweathermap is like 40 minutes or more via the API?

[north mural]

Most of the time openweathermap and echo show are about 3-5 degrees off but today in particular they're way off.

I'm in Florida in the middle of summer, it's not going below 78F for any reason this time of year.

[pallid saffron]

i knda depend on more "hyper local" weather (weather underground) because it's 5-15 degrees diff between here and the airport

[north mural]

Yeah my point is don't rely on online weather from any source for accurate local temperatures.

[north mural]

A neat thing I discovered is between 80F-90F the BME280 sensor from Adafruit is extremely accurate. Can highly recommend.

[fathom summit]

Embeded Lua and FatFS on my QMK firmware, wrote a small editor (cant edit yet lmao) which, in the demo, both closes and executes the file 🤓

[last bronze]

@wide brook it came back from ze repair!

Turns out it was mismatched configuration jumpers and the manual was just wrong

[wide brook]

I'm glad it works, but can't help but wonder how you can fit all this gear in one home, and what you'll do once you have to move

[last bronze]

I have a designated workshop room with my dad, we mainly take care of our train models there, but I have my own electronics area

And also a pretty large room

[lucid bloom]

Good data resulted in a very fast ac unit upgrade, I installed home assistant less than 2 months ago and it is already paying off.

1. Collect data
2. Give data to landlord
3. Watch landlord turn on a dime to fix the problem

I've been nominated for the H2HC for my work at the pantry over the last 5 years leveraging diy tech for good. I won't know if I win until November. If I win the pantry gets 100k and I get bragging rights
https://h2hcollaboratory.org/what-we-do/innovation-prizes/

[north mural]

That is awesome!

[lucid bloom]

It would be cool to win im banking on this part of the criteria
Take an innovative approach that has potential regional or national scalability or community adaptation

If I were to do it all again I would start with home assistant. I reprogrammed all my fridge/freezer alarms to work with ha and that's what I would suggest starting with. Having open source home automation technology watching over food pantries all over the place would be amazing. Giving anyone access to the system from their phone is nice, it's no longer my sole responsibility to receive alarm notifications. I am working on a few tutorials in case I do win I want to be able to make it easy for beginners. The food pantry ordering system crashed when I turned it on this morning cuz it ran out of paper. I ended up having to delete the days autogenerated files cuz the paper issue messed them up, after that and a reboot everything was fine. 1 roll lasted 3 years because numbers are 1.5 inches and most numbers are given by sms.

[fathom summit]

Improved a bit and cleaned up the code 😁
https://github.com/elpekenin/qmk_firmware/tree/fatfs/keyboards/handwired/onekey/keymaps/fatfs_spi_sd

[nimble sapphire]

I missed show & tell this week

foo!

[junior barn]

@warped siren on Real Python podcast.
Great interview and a wealth of links to information and tools!

https://realpython.com/podcasts/rpp/161/

[warped siren]

thanks!

[rich linden]

Hi. I'm interested in sharing a little about my bot project. Are there any guidelines for posting on this channel? Thanks.

[scenic siren]

Hello! As long as you're adhering to our #code-of-conduct and continuing to keep this a welcoming, inclusive place, there are not really specific guidelines for posting here. You can post images, links (not too many too quickly), code, etc. to share your project. You're welcome to share here!

[rich linden]

Awesome! Thanks.

[drifting crater]

Weather display coming along nicely!

[fathom summit]

C-Lua interop is a bit painful to get used (moving around the text buffer to make you own editor is worse tho)

This is already making runtime changes to a script file being run 🤓 -- no computer/flashing involved

PS: uppercase writing implemented right after the vid, and therefore the color constant renamed

[crystal pier]

I want to do an embedded Lua project at some point. Lua is a far simpler language with a much faster VM than python, so it makes more sense to me than CPy.

[crystal pier]

Now with press-fit variants!
https://www.printables.com/model/512753-qtqwiiccliq-better-din-all-the-things

[north mural]

Simple PIR sensor added to strip lights turns them into motion sensor lights for getting out of bed in the dark.

Just thought about it as a monster alarm for a kids room to have the motion sensor under the bed or in the closet. I don't have kids but it's a cute idea.

This is going in a guest room so when family visits it'll be a nice convenience.

[rich linden]

I've been working on a robotics project for sometime now. For me it's been more about learning than anything else. Working with CAN bus to communicate sensor data to the SBC.

side panels are removable and held in place with magnets

[dusk zinc]

That looks amazing! Fit and finish are 💯

[inland trout]

But what is it? 😄

[rich linden]

Loosly I would say it is a differential drive robot that has the potential to autonomously navigate while avoiding obstacles.

[pallid saffron]

it ain't tiny, is it?

[rich linden]

No, small wasn't a design criteria. I wanted a platform that I could attach whatever I want to play with. Has a great deal of battery capacity as well!

[last bronze]

@wide brook wish me luck, turning in my competition entry tomorrow, might win a guaranteed spot at a uni 😄 (had to build a 1kHz sin generator)

[crystal pier]

Not familiar with that brand of scope

[wide brook]

Hey, seriously, best of luck!

[last bronze]

oh, that just says "Oscilloscope S1-64" in funny letters 😂

[last bronze]

thanks!

[clever stone]

seesaw-esque 🤩
An I2C Client device with dual neopixel bars. The I2C data is minimal: choose bar color, set attack/decay, then just 2 values (L/R) to update the bars. The onboard attiny1616 does all the heavy lifting of computing attack/decay, updating and maintaining the color selections. Firmware is just 3600 bytes.

[clever stone]

While this Dual Neopixel board uses the same ATtiny1616 as the Adafruit NeoDriver - I2C to NeoPixel Driver, they are worlds apart.
This board implements a small number of high level I2C commands and has a bunch of code to implement those few commands. If you want new commands or different behavior then you’d update and reflash the firmware.
The Adafruit NeoDriver - I2C to NeoPixel Driver has a more generic set of commands and as such, can do lots of things (without climbing under the hood). However, it won’t be as spritely as a lot of commands need to be sent to achieve dynamic visuals.
The code running on this device board is on an ATtiny1616 which means it’s compatible with the Adafruit seesaw ATtiny1616 board.

[last bronze]

3 sources confirm it's a perfect 1kHz

With a perfect sine and 0 noise

[wide brook]

fingers crossed! All the best!

[feral orchid]

LVSSTC (Low Voltage Solid State Tesla Coil) 2.3 is operational

Running off 31v

[exotic sierra]

This is honestly really cool

[clever stone]

I have not tried yet but I’m pretty sure all the code will run on the Adafruit ATtiny1616 seesaw. The only task would be looking at its schematic to match its “number” scheme to the original PORT:PIN syntax. After that, all the examples in the AVR Coding 102 materials will work directly … including these neopixel bars 👍🏼

[cunning lava]

Family photo: fluffbug, weebug and bigbug together.

[pallid saffron]

awwwwwwww

[last bronze]

Got a bubble LED calculator 🤤

[stark latch]

Pretty sure the TI-30 was the 2nd calculator I ever had. I think this was the first.

[pallid saffron]

and yes, i even wore it on my belt

[stark latch]

Definitely before my time. Earliest I remember anyone using was the SR-40.

[wide brook]

Electronic slide rule calculator. That's some crazy marketing right there. "Like slide rule, but better!"

(Or is there another reason they wrote that on the box?)

[pallid saffron]

well, in my particular case, it did replace a slide-rule 😀

[crystal pier]

I wonder if it used a lookup table internally.

[north mural]

LORA portable range finder. Will help determine how far from my nodes I can go before signal loss.

Will be battery powered ESP32-S2 Reverse TFT on an RFM95 Featherwing and high gain antenna.

you know... for mailboxes that are really far away 🙂

[rich linden]

The other day someone shared a picture of a magnetic core memory. This is a rather large board which is 4k bits. My father in law worked with a machine that used this. Kind of cool.

[north mural]

did the range test today. got as far as line of sight around the corner from house before it went out. my receiver is in the back of the house behind two concrete walls so even that is pretty good. if I put the receiver on a high pole way above the tree line i bet it would go for miles.

in flat land Florida the best I could do with my RFM95 setup was about 200 feet because suburbia, houses, and trees in the way.

still better than wifi range though

i'm afraid to put it on a pole that would become a lightning rod.

The RFM/LORA depends heavily on line of sight. It doesn't deal with scattering well at all.

Though it did go through 2 concrete walls... 🤷

[clever stone]

Took the “theory” and made them “reality” - Continuous Range data from touch controllers.
The circular controller generates either 0..255 or 0.359.
The grid controller generates X-Y pair with 0..255 for each.
Here are close-ups of the PCB:

[leaden orbit]

i built half a sofle and it mostly works!!

[hearty lagoon]

Can you tell us a bit more about how these work?

[clever stone]

Hi! I’m finishing up the code, documentation, and then the tutorial … so there will be plenty of details.

In the meantime, a quick overview:

The layout of the physical touch sensors results in multiple being active at the same time. I’ve written “interpolator” code which identifies which raw data have the greatest influence. They are processed to compute any value between adjacent sensors along with the relative influence of each. The result is the “continuous range” data.

BTW: One implementation of these uses an ATtiny1616 to drive both and provide I2C commands to get the processed values so the main controller just treats these as high level “under interface” devices and doesn’t need to bother with reading the raw data and processing it.

[errant pasture]

Have had a ton of progress making a parametric monophonic synth within CircuitPython's synthio library lately! Still have a number of bugs and features to work out, but it's sounding mighty phat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuqIeZu2VT8

[hearty lagoon]

Awesome! I will keep my eyes open for the release of the tutorial then

[burnt wyvern]

I completely forgot about these, I absolutely love outdated or absurd data storage methods like this (this one wasn't as absurd though)

Makes me wonder if there's some way to DIY these in batches and use it with a modern microcontroller as actual storage

[inland trout]

The other day someone shared a picture of a magnetic core memory
This is the one that was shared here I think:
https://www.hackster.io/news/a-core-memory-shield-for-the-arduino-d86ad1c76340
https://jussikilpelainen.kapsi.fi/wordpress/?p=213
(not mine)

[burnt wyvern]

Are these normally super expensive?

[covert dawn]

Hey, I wrote a CircuitPython library to drive the inexpensive SYN6988 speech synthesizer / TTS boards you can find on AliExpress. If you need to add voice prompts to your project (maybe for accessibility) this board works better than I'd expected for English speech.
https://github.com/scruss/circuitpython-SYN6988

Demo of the board through screen capture audio loopback: https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/425706/249488026-bf107dc3-3db7-4eb7-90a4-6cfe5986529f.mov

[hardy veldt]

Proof of concept for audio-reactive shaders using a Teensy 4 and an optimized ILI9341 library since the basic examples don't really cover fft; here, the circles in the middle are reacting to a narrow bass frequency. The fps is intentionally capped at 60 (double-buffered 120 for vsync), but the Teensy can drive this display at much higher framerates even with the fft running, which is really nice.

[last bronze]

@wide brook 3rd place, got the spot 😄 unfortunately the distortion was a bit high, but eh

[wide brook]

Good job! That's one major stress off your life

Congratulations!

[burnt wyvern]

Someone brought these two in for an auction I'm volunteering at. He told me they were Arduino boards lol.

I mean, I see how you could mistake the two if you're not a maker.

[crystal pier]

That reminds me I still need to build my Stratum 1 NTP server with my old pi.

[last bronze]

Me want buy lol

[wide brook]

pi1! :D I used to have one, used it till it gave up its spirit

[last bronze]

Moar meters

[lucid bloom]

I got the hardware working for what will eventually be an esphome single door/double door freezer alarm. My goal is for it to be quick/easy to make, easy to set up and easy to get working as an alarm in home assistant. The next step is to make an automation that is functional then use that as a basis for a blueprint.

[north mural]

Thats a neat idea. Shows how you can save energy/money by not keeping the door open any longer than necessary.

[lucid bloom]

Also catching them when they die or slowly freeze over. The logic for detecting a problematic freezer is 1 hour over 20F and that logic is turned off during operating hours. Recently had an alarm go off after being reactivated. I had to unplug the freezer for 48 hours. The old system had been going off a lot and then when the new home assistant system did the same it was time to check it

The importance of the alarms is that issues get solved early on our terms and do not get to a crisis point.

What's cool is I can trace the issue back to roughly a month ago, it was ok on may 17 and 24th but after that it was progressively freezing over, the old system went off every week and then when the old one went off twice in a day and the new one went off two weeks in a row I had to do something

[last bronze]

Got a pegboard to finally organize some of my tools 😄

[warped siren]

This is very cool! I want to get one of these boards and try this out

I've been goofing around with more CircuitPython synthio stuff. Got one of my boards from back in May semi-populated and coded up a quick step sequencer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ca5fP6Zp_w

[covert dawn]

It's rather hard to track down a specific board. I think that the SYN6xxx chips are all inter-compatible. I have some more boards on the way. Ping me if you get a board and it's not doing the thing for you

[wide brook]

Nice demo! For some reason (probably because I don't know Chinese), its Chinese voice sounds better than its English one

I should probably not be surprised, since it's a Chinese product, probably aimed at the domestic market?

[covert dawn]

Very aimed at the domestic market. From the very little I know about them, I think they're used in ATMs.
The English voice may not be great, but it's far better than it really needs to be. It gets most words right (or close enough). In the past you had to mess around with Arpabet phonemes to make speech chips say anything understandable

[wide brook]

Yeah, I had no idea speech synthesis ICs (1) still existed and (2) have progressed so much. If you don't mind me asking, do you know Chinese?

[covert dawn]

No, I don't. I'm hoping the examples I chose aren't beyond cringe. I was careful to make the driver accept not just ASCII characters so you can send Traditional Chinese characters to it and it will make sense of them. Maybe someone can use this for voice prompts in an assistive technology projects

[last bronze]

@wide brook I've bought one of my dream meters

a tape recorder!

didn't arrive yet, hence the pic is bad quality :v

but it's this exact one

[wide brook]

You can age it by the country indication. "MADE IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA"

[last bronze]

😄

to get free shipping it's coming with one of those lol

not sure what I'll do with it

but

is light = i like

[meager summit]

This was a silly project I made to automate the monotony in Tears of the Kingdom. Yes, I know there are less obtuse ways to do this, but this was lazier for me, lol! https://youtu.be/M_fhMhpAUck

[burnt wyvern]

I got an old 42 inch plotter from an auction for free, an idea that came to mind was making a giant punchcard-like graph of every bit in the Super Mario Bros. ROM data. I managed to dig out my old NES data archive and make a quick Python script to create an image of the whole thing. It fits on the plotter and is a whole 40 feet in length. Obviously I didn't print the whole thing because paper and ink is expensive. But it's cool that in theory it would work. Here's the first foot or so of the print.

[last bronze]

Can I see ze plotter?

[burnt wyvern]

Sure, it's an HP DesignJet 800

[last bronze]

Nice one

[lean elbow]

Needed some timers for cooking so I built this over the weekend. Programmed with CircuitPython on a Propmaker Feather, to take advantage of the battery charging and the I2S audio amp. Automatically enters deep sleep when not in use to preserve battery life.

[tame dawn]

Just wrapped up my latest project, a very simple audio book reader. I built it for my mom who, as she gets older, has more of a hate and less of a love relationship with technology. I documented the project if you're interested https://learn.adafruit.com/u/ntynen/pages/simple-audio-book-reader

[short summit]

That's very cool! And I'm impressed you included the CAD and STL files in your Github repo, too

I think that just might show up in the weekly Python on Hardware newsletter 🙂

[tame dawn]

Thanks! It was a fun project. Always looking for projects to improve both my coding and 3D printing skills

[carmine flare]

Showing and telling a setback. Last week my battery charging project was working:

But now it is very much not working, and I don't know why:

[north mural]

😦 what kind of battery for 2.64v? get help in the hw channel for your design?

tanking from 2V to 1V that fast means 1V drain somewhere perhaps?

[carmine flare]

It’s an unorthodox design, and I think the only sensible advice would be “don’t do this.” So I can’t really ask for help.

Just trying this anyway because I think there is sometimes value in trying bad ideas.

It’s two AAA size 1000mah NIMH cells, in series. So, fully charged voltage is about 2.8v. I am attempting to trickle charge them with 10ma from a GPIO. The entire “charging circuit” is a single 47ohm resister and a diode.

Terrible idea? Sure. But the math checks out. And it was working until I left the device powered in overnight and the cells got depleted. I swapped them out for fresh ones but same dropping voltage. It seems I may have fried something on my Pico but the GPIO still seems to be functioning.

Science! Or something.

[north mural]

Win some lose some. Keep at it. Gaining experience is learning all the ways not to do something.

[last bronze]

Finally arrived 🤤

[crystal pier]

Anyone need a DIN-mounted spring latch?
https://www.printables.com/model/520680-din-mounted-spring-latch

[wide brook]

Thanks to your printables profile, I just found out 3D printable funnels are a thing that exists. In my defense, I've never worked or looked into 3D printers before

[crystal pier]

That is somehow still my most popular model, by a wide margin.

[wide brook]

You never know when you need a funnel!

[crystal pier]

Indeed

And PETG is surprisingly chemical resistant.

I need to print one for my cat's food tank.

[wide brook]

PETG food tank for the pet :P

[crystal pier]

Too many grooves in printed parts for that to be safe without epoxy.

But I will print a funnel to make it easier to pour catfood.

[wide brook]

post a pic here! :P

[crystal pier]

Sure when I print it.

[vernal vigil]

Is there a stream tonite?

[scenic siren]

Yep! In 30 minutes.

[queen veldt]

It’s not done yet, but I felt the need to share it in its current state

[crystal pier]

[queen veldt]

STL and Manual will be shared once I'm done with it

everything except hardware is printed including compound planetary gearboxes

[wide brook]

I love this emoji 😂

[lean elbow]

Built this last summer and realized recently watching Lada Ada and PT retrofit old toys with new tech that I never showed this off. I gutted an old NES Zapper and squeezed in an ItsyBitsy RP2040, a 400mAh battery and battery charger breakout, an I2S amp and small oval speaker, and a Neopixel. I also used one of the cool magnetic USB connectors for easy charging, and a switch to power off completely. Designed and 3D printed a small part to mount the switch that fits into the cord outlet, and a little diffuser piece for the barrel to show of the Neopixel better. Code is written in CircuitPython.

[tame dawn]

This is so cool!

[hardy veldt]

Finished soldering my LCD audio visualizer so I figured I have it run side-by-side with my LED visualizer to some music. It's overkill but I love that the Teensy can handle two 1024 sample ffts (adds variety at least) and still push lots of frames. Still have some to-do's, more effects, etc., but notably the flickering circles since it's not actually flicker, it's persistence of vision at work as it's only rendering one of each kind of circle.

[hardy veldt]

Made some changes and I'm pretty much done with this type of visualization. Now it triggers more amplitude-based effects, there's a decaying waterfall at the top, and the flickering is dampened a bit by some coincidental rendering quirks.

This one's better suited for music so my next vis setting is gonna be spline-based that's tuned for voices.

[short summit]

We featured your project as the Project of the Week in the Python on Hardware newsletter: https://www.adafruitdaily.com/2023/07/10/python-on-microcontrollers-newsletter-circuitpython-8-2-0-stable-released-and-more-circuitpython-python-micropython-thepsf-raspberry_pi/

[tame dawn]

Thank you so much!

[main loom]

They're here!
Not soldered, but I just had to make sure all the important components actually fit.

[grand turtle]

nRF5340 pro micro 🙂

[lucid bloom]

My remixed project is almost done. This is what I started with
https://github.com/rpigu-i/rfidsnatcher
I replaced the board with a feather and I modified the code that would send a sms if a default key was detected into a captive portal with card info making the device more like a card reader that checks for default keys. I increased the number of keys to check as well with all the default keys listed at https://github.com/XaviTorello/mifare-classic-toolkit

[hardy veldt]

More visualizer nonsense. Simpler this time with a focus on vocal frequencies, though I did recycle the noise shader to populate the background. Next would be something involving triangles and/or fractals, if I can figure out how to draw them.

[solar yew]

Hi I'm thinking of making a device a lot like the flipper Zero but with more features and it has an entrance for a RF antenna, I did some 3d model of the device and wanted to share if you have any tips for me please tell them so I can improve my project.

[grand turtle]

I made a high precision low noise ADC breakout board 🙂

[grand turtle]

just spotted that missing resistor in the photo! hahaha

[peak marlin]

I have several devices that use the OpenWeatherMap API that display weather info around the house.
Once I get past a certain point (especially when testing), I have hit the API rate limit.
So to fix that, I wrote some code to get and cache the data from OpenWeatherMap every 15 minutes and provide an endpoint for all the devices to use - many requests but only one API call.
https://github.com/DerBroader71/owmcache
Hope someone (anyone) finds it useful

There are currently versions in Go and CPython but I will also be doing a CircuitPython version, so you can have a device providing it instead of an SBC or computer.

[feral orchid]

What IC?

Looks cool 😎

[grand turtle]

ads131m08

intention is to do some wild crazy emg sensing w/ it

[feral orchid]

And why a high speed CSI-like interface

[grand turtle]

8 channel high frequency adc readings

breaking it out so that a microcontroller with highspeed usb can beam into my confuser

[feral orchid]

So just an fpc for the adc channels

[grand turtle]

ahhh i see what you were asking

[feral orchid]

It looked like a high speed serial interface at first

[grand turtle]

yes i preferred it over the other connections i've seen before and JLC has flex now

[crystal pier]

Ah yes that won't hurt signal integrity at all

[feral orchid]

But upon closer inspection, it's just differential ADC channels

[grand turtle]

i spoke with an FPC company before I had the electrode ends manufactured and i followed their recommendations

[lilac tundra]

oof

wait nvm u can just solder it on

[kind burrow]

OK, at DJDevon's urging (nudge nudge, wink wink) I'm gonna post first Show from a relative beginner. Totally credit FoamyGuy - I copied the basic code from Deep Dive some time ago, and didn't know you could do something like this. The code could be optimized, but haven't had the time...
This is running on ESP-S2 Feather TFT, but I've also ran modified code on PicoDVI Picowbell on my TV, with more circles. In this program, I had to limit the # of circles since I got memory full error if too many...
I don't have a video, but the circles constantly randomly change colors. This is a relatively simple program but I was amazed at the results (for a noob like me) .
I left out a line in this code below... the for loops should say:
for i in range(NUM_CIRCLES):
Several versions of this code hanging around...

[grand turtle]

yep! i actually hand assembled these so it's really my fault haha

[lilac tundra]

noice it looks like its been manufactured by how good the quality is lol

[grand turtle]

the stencil makes it quite easy, easier than many think. hardest part is following your BOM!

[lilac tundra]

yep

I just hot-glued a servo on a plug-in power distributer and just finished coding it

now I can use it to control appliances!

[lilac tundra]

I JUST FINISHED IT!

now I can control my lamp using a simple ir remote

I should make a yt vid on it

[kind burrow]

Don't know if anyone's using STM32, but I heard LadyAda talk about ST boards several times, I got the bug, and got one. Nucleo-L476RG from Digikey. Guess I wanted a challenge... As far as I can find, there isn't CP support.
https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/stmicroelectronics/NUCLEO-L476RG/5347711?s=N4IgTCBcDaIMoBUCyBmMAZALAdgGwCUBxAAiQGEBVAGhAF0BfIA
It uses STM32CubeIDE to program: here's a really good starting out vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyZS2p1tW-g
I've managed to get Adafruit SSD1306 Prod 938, and a Seed RTC working, thanks to excellent videos, and github - links below.
I already had the shield wired up, and it fits on the board with its Arduino style pinouts. To not get too technical, the ST's I2C needs to be set to I2c3, so the I2C output uses "Ard" pins A4/A5. Don't want to overload anyone - this is a definite learning process.
OLED setup vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1Px6emHIeg
github library:
https://github.com/afiskon/stm32-ssd1306
DS1307 github library:
https://github.com/eepj/DS1307_for_STM32_HAL
BTW - this board runs Arduino sketches perfectly, but I wanted to learn the new IDE, a "painful" but rewarding process ha ha.
This is the link you need for the board to be added to Arduino:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/stm32duino/BoardManagerFiles/main/package_stmicroelectronics_index.json
There are lots of examples folks on github have programmed. Here's one.
https://github.com/DanielMartensson/STM32-Libraries
A lot of this stuff is still way over my head, but I'm a glutton for punishment😄

[last bronze]

Got another beautiful meter 🤤

[lilac tundra]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1yVEuZ-ue8

just finished this project

[ocean frigate]

Ah like a DIY switchbot, and safer than rewiring mains through relays. Neat

[lilac tundra]

Yeah!

[kind burrow]

If anyone is interested, I couldn't get the DanileMartensson LCD code to work at all.
THIS one works perfectly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYrHRSeAUUc
The link to his code files is in the vid, the only changes I had to make were as follows:
If you have "hal" files for a different board (such as stm32f4xx_hal.h like his example) you just have to rename the includes in his code - mine needed to be stm32l4xx_hal.h since my board is L476 (not an F series). The compiler flagged errors, and just renaming the includes worked fine.
OK, I'm officially done boring everybody with this stuff. But it is fun...

[main loom]

Let's go!
It works. My little NeoPixel control board. Slight confusion from the fact that passing 0 to the colorHSV function returns green, not red.
Or maybe my LEDs are actually RGB order, not GRB.

Still, I'm absolutely stoked that it actually works

Ok, yeah. Doublechecking the function use, 0 should be red. Guess I'll change the color order.

[trim talon]

it just shows solutions posted to Twitter, nothing too smart

[kind burrow]

Howdy again. I REALLY like this plug-and-play setup, so show it off.
Details: Pico and PICowbell from Adafruit, RFM69 breakout,
Pico Decker Quad and Display Pack 2.0 from pishop.us
I had already wired up the Cowbell to handle the breakout, receiving outside data from Feather M0 RFM69.
The display is nice and large.
The code I show is the demo from library bundle, and I added the buttons code.
https://www.pishop.us/product/pico-display-pack-2-0/
https://www.pishop.us/product/pico-decker-quad-expander/

[north mural]

Finishing up a personal project using a Fitbit to display my mom's heart activity on a TFT Featherwing. Light blue indicates she's either sleeping or in a deeply restful state right now. ❤️

Compared to an avg heart rate of 45-50 a month ago. Seeing this brings me great comfort.

Thanks to @languid nebula for all the recent updates for uplot to help make this work.

[dark cairn]

Just a cool picture I took.

[north mural]

Changed my plotting graph to cartesian. Plotting fine. The magic sauce I needed was something like my_plane.clear_plot_lines(). It's now graphing and refreshing properly every 15 minutes with the last 15 minute avg heart rates from Fitbit.

Wish there was a way to change the line color depending on y-axis value. Maybe will submit a feature request.

[crystal pier]

My entry to the paper towel holder contest:
https://www.printables.com/model/531400-spilldin-din-mounted-paper-towel-holder

[crystal pier]

By the way, I don't normally ask people to like and download my models for the sake of popularity, but in this case I am trying to force Prusa to acknowledge the CERN OHL.

[last bronze]

@wide brook the Soviet generator has unfortunately died 😦

I hope I can get it working again, but I'm worried the ICs might have died

[lean elbow]

My take on a version of the star fragment lamp that doesn't require a WiFi connection. I used a QT Py M0 and a Neopixel driver BFF, and a RTC breakout (I still have a few of them from before the stemma qt redesign). I soldered all the boards onto a perma-proto and designed a case that would allow me to mount the perma-proto via its mounting holes, using a couple heat sink inserts and screws. Operation is simple, just press the button once at sunset, and it will fade on over the next hour. Seven hours after pressing the button it will begin to fade back out, and by hour 8 it will have faded out again.

[wide brook]

Well, if the ICs are dead, you'll probably have little luck finding equivalent western ones, unless they are direct clones... @upbeat geyser probably knows more about those sorts of things though, I think he has repaired ex-USSR stuff in the past....

[last bronze]

found the ICs, they're available and all, but unfortunately it's most likely the transformer 😦

and to make things even worse, there are no voltages listed on the schematic

[grand turtle]

Hey guys, I made a Nordic library for KiCAD. Looking for contributors to help finish up the custom footprints Nordic has for their BGAs and aQFNs.
https://github.com/hlord2000/nordic-lib-kicad
It has full PCM support and all symbols defined for modern Nordic parts.

[elder token]

Not exactly sure if I can put this here, but I think I will be told if I can't... >_>
Because my brain decided that it wants me to develop a DIWhy 16 bit minicopmputer from scratch...
http://warringersworlds.net/category/dwmc-16/

[wide brook]

Hello! Have you considered implementing everything in an FPGA instead of using discrete components?

[elder token]

Where is the fun in that?

[wide brook]

Hah, I guess that's fair :P

Please don't consider this a "you're doing it wrong" kind of thing

[elder token]

FPGA would be comparably easy and perhaps a good way to validate the design before building it in descrete components.

[wide brook]

That sounds like a good idea :)

(And you'll also have a version of the design that will work at much higher fmax)

[elder token]

I'm not taking it as 'you're doing it wrong'. Always open for ideas... :p

Also for developing a monitor/OS. :p

[wide brook]

Yeah. Personally, I find working with FPGAs much more fun than working with discrete components, but that's just me 😅

[elder token]

I'd also have to learn how to use FPGAs, while discrete components won't be a problem. So the other way around from you.

[wide brook]

Most FPGA software has a schematic entry form, but it's inefficient and inflexible, so you'll have to learn a hardware description language

I use verilog. https://hdlbits.01xz.net/wiki/Step_one is a decent tutorial

Then, it's a matter of picking up a chip, which will also select the toolchain you will use

Some lattice chips are supported by an open-source toolchain, but for the rest of them, you'll have to use closed-source software

[elder token]

Hmmmm...

Well, I do make any logic diagrams in the software Digital, which does export to Verilog.

[wide brook]

The question is whether the output is synthesizeable, and what you'll do if you run into some bug

So, learning verilog (or VHDL) is still recommended ;)

[elder token]

https://github.com/hneemann/Digital

Possible.

[wide brook]

Also, verifying your circuit will be much easier if you enter it using HDL

You could use something like https://www.cocotb.org/

You can also synthesize said HDL to a specific FPGA (or other technology library) and then verify the LUT/gate-level implementation

[split wren]

ive used iverilog in the past to sim verilog on pc

[wide brook]

Yeah, iverilog is OK, as long as you aren't working with encrypted IP (or using SystemVerilog to a non-trivial degree). Verilator is an option too

Most FPGA toolchains also come with a simulator

[elder token]

Concerning my project... I just discovered that Ferromagnetic RAM is a thing... Technically Core memory in IC form. HYPE!

[last bronze]

Do link, please

Am intrigued now

[elder token]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferroelectric_RAM

Okay its ferroelectric ram

[wide brook]

There's also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistive_random-access_memory

[candid crescent]

Ah, I thought you might have been referring to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetoresistive_RAM

[vernal vigil]

I have published the hardware & software for the KB2040-based FM synth module that I showed off on the S&T stream a couple weeks ago: https://github.com/Len42/Dexy

It was a long time in the making, and there are still some features I want to add, but at some point I have to call it done and start actually using it.

[late magnet]

Woo, 3d-printed XDA-profile keycaps for my Macropad RP2040, now just to actually finish the side of the software that runs on the computer to update its configuration live instead of requiring a recompile like it does now

...And actually seeing that close-up of those keys in that first picture it makes them look atrocious, but they're tiny so it doesn't looks okay from a few feet away, lol...

[fresh junco]

In this project, I used Arduino, ultrasonic sensors, and Max/MSP to create a virtual instrument. Would love to know your thoughts about it. Thanks!!!

https://youtu.be/cCcrgRmsudE

[dark cairn]

I am so scared of breaking the display a 2nd time I decided it's box time!
The usb dongle is attached to the main lash so it can be disconnected without you losing it.
The zipties can be easily slid off so you can open the box.

[cedar moat]

Hi all. I just want to show appreciation to the Adafruit team for making CAD models public.
This has been a game changer for helping me add these parts to my PCB editor.

https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CAD_Parts

[autumn orchid]

Miniproject related to the current rp2040 pio encoder discussion in #help-with-circuitpython @ancient skiff

The 10kppr HID scrollwheel of doom for testing encoder implementations with pio.

[feral orchid]

Adafruit even sells some FRAM breakouts.

[exotic sierra]

You will soon be able to program your ICE40 FPGA from circuitpython! Coming soon to a community bundle near you! 🙂

[languid nebula]

That is so cool!!!

[exotic sierra]

It’s part of my master plan to make fpga more accessible to makers 🙂

[fathom summit]

Not if you live in other side of the sea 😿

Very kewl project, good job ❤️

[exotic sierra]

Board files and BOM will be open source

So you can order bits from your favorite supplier, PCB from Aisler

[fathom summit]

Ping me then 😁👀

[exotic sierra]

👍🏻

Should be available this weekend

[fathom summit]

Any specific ideas for the FPGA?

Perhaps hardware accelerated displayio? 😆

[exotic sierra]

Well, I’d love to see someone implement a neopixel driver on it

[wide brook]

That's fast! When did you begin designing it again?

[exotic sierra]

I did something initial 4 days ago but didn’t touch it until today

[wide brook]

Fast indeed :P. How many layers is it?

[exotic sierra]

2 layers

[languid nebula]

I have some libraries in mind that could use that 😊

[fathom summit]

Which language/tool is even used for that thing, btw?

Reply and move onto #fpga maybe

[exotic sierra]

Yosys OSS CAD Tools with Verilog

[exotic sierra]

Voila! IcePython: https://github.com/skerr92/Oakdevtech_CircuitPython_IcePython

Board files coming to GitHub soon as well

[fathom summit]

some code feedback if i may

• isnt for _ in range(8) # or 100 slightly faster than a while? (definitely looks cleaner to me)
• len(file) > 0 check as a guard clause would reduce indentation

curious... what happened to the "have to invert", was that a mis-read of something or did you end up feeding inverted file into the library?
very cool how easy programming the thing is 👌

[exotic sierra]

First, for statement with unused i causes a linting error, I’m going to add more robust file name checking soon

As for inverting, turns out not necessary

I just needed to try and read back data from the fpga to get it to start lol..

[wide brook]

ha, python linters can be weird sometimes. I still use the for :P

[exotic sierra]

One guess is that the read back allows the internal osc to start on a SPI clk reference in peripheral mode

[fathom summit]

_ is the convention for "unused", does the linting also complain about that?

[exotic sierra]

?

I’m not sure what you mean

Like passing _ as a variable?

[fathom summit]

yeah, exactly how i wrote it

[exotic sierra]

I don’t know if it complains about it

[exotic sierra]

I guess I’m still confused. Do you mean
some_function(_) or
self._myvar

[fathom summit]

neither, i mean: ```diff

• i = 0
• while i < SOMETHING:

• i + 1
  

• # some code
  

• for _ in range(SOMETHING):

• # some code
  

[exotic sierra]

Ah, okay. Yeah I’m don’t know if it’s complain

I’d assume yes? But I’ll give it a whirl in a bit

[small ginkgo]

Hello, I want to share my latest build, I made a midi controller pedal with a feather RP2040, the main feature is that it is configurable with a json file. It has an oled screen, rgb neoleds and even an iternal battery. https://github.com/yeraym/tamazaque_controller_cp/

[exotic sierra]

The lattice featherwing is available for preorder here —> https://www.oakdev.tech/store/p23/Lattice-FeatherWing.html#/

I generally try to avoid preorder but it’s the best option I have right now for delivering products at the moment

[exotic sierra]

My smölest board to date:

RPixel

[north mural]

A microcontroller with only debug headers with micro usb... i'm intrigued as to its use.

[hardy veldt]

The start of a tamagochi thing, graphic lcd and all, though with an extra button for spacing reasons. Using some desoldered parts from a failed project, which thankfully have castellated edges, so it made sense to repurpose them here.

[exotic sierra]

Not even a debug port, neopixel connection 🙂

[north mural]

I missed the wires attached. Why not use headers or some terminals?

[exotic sierra]

I didn’t have any strips attached at the time of the picture

[north mural]

Looks like wires from your multimeter so there's some kind of attach points there somewhere.

[exotic sierra]

If you look, the probes for the multimeter is on the desk

[north mural]

Hence my confusion. I thought you literally snipped them and soldered them to the board, just the way the photo is angled. 😛

[zealous eagle]

Happy Birthday Jerry! - cpx paint stick

[last bronze]

Finally fixed an error in my lil shift register based "expanders" which prevented them from setting the last bit, turns out I just put >= instead of > in the code 😂

[fathom summit]

Do your keyboards also warn about GitHub notifications + show current song on Spotify and resources usage + autocorrect some typos? 😆

[feral orchid]

Buck-boost Laser driver assembled and working (with a high power led as a test load)! I'm surprised how low the noise on the output is. Less than 10mV pk-pk!

I'm not using a ground spring, so it isn't the best measurement, but measuring it properly would probably mean a lower noise measurement

[grand turtle]

made a new bioimpedance measurement featherwing :) uses an ads131m08 and is battery powered. not isolated but hoping that is not necessary!

[inland trout]

First 3D-print project in years: Case to use a Raspberry Pi Pico with Picoprobe as Debugger for other RP2040s.
My case has big labels for all pins and JST-XH compatible plugs to prevent accidentally plugging it in the wrong way (but I can still use jumper cables). And on the bottom it says which drivers are correct in case windows screws them up again.
(I should get better wire colors for the JST XH wires, but I didn't crimp them myself, they were replacements for LiPo balancers so they're only red+black.)

[wraith hearth]

So my project is coming along okay.... except.... I wanted to use a heatsink with fan on my pi, but I also wanted to use a witty pi 4 lev7, so now I gotta design around it lol

[wraith hearth]

Hey, everybody so right now this is kinda what I'm dealing with. I wanted to use the Wi-Fi directly connected to the Pi 4. But I was also going to use this really nice cooling system on my pie. 4. And they just don't mesh together. So now I've got a decision to make.

[inland trout]

files now on printables: https://www.printables.com/de/model/544622-picoprobe-enclosure-with-labels-jst-xh-compatible-
Please ping me if you print it and the tolerances are messed up. I only printed it on the ultimaker S5 in the local makerspace and it barely fit. I can adjust it and upload different files if you want.
I hope obj, stp and ipt files are good for everyone to allow printing and editing.

[hardy veldt]

It looks cursed and the case is hacked together (stuck on the tin with E6000, and opened the hinge holes for power switch and USB access) but I love it. XD

Practically though, I've been using it to learn to code finite state machines (by setting the date/time via buttons) and devising a lipo battery meter, which can be recycled for other projects.

[exotic sierra]

neat!

[hardy veldt]

Thanks. I was supposed to use your Cast-Away RP2040 here but the fit underneath that screen with the qt py lipo bff charger was a bit too tight, so I ended up with a kb2040 that was already scuffed since I desoldered it from a failed project. Good reason to practice soldering castellated edges at least.

[exotic sierra]

Indeed 🙂

[wide brook]

Is this a nokia lcd screen?

[hardy veldt]

Yup. One of those surplus 5110 screens.

They're surprisingly fun to use.

[exotic sierra]

Doing a little product photography for IcyBlue FPGA

[wide brook]

I'd recommend using a sheet of A4 instead. I know this is a paper towel, but it reminds me too much of 🧻 ;)

The picture is gorgeous

[exotic sierra]

It’s not a paper towel actually

It’s a backdrop material that came with a photography kit I bought a while back

[wide brook]

Then I don't know anything xD

[exotic sierra]

Here’s the black canvas

It’s a weird material lol

I try to wash it out with what little editing I can do on my phone

[wide brook]

Yeeeah, I'd use the black canvas :P

Otherwise, it looks like you're using paper towel or toilet paper as a backdrop :P

[exotic sierra]

I have to use white for CrowdSupply

[wide brook]

Oh really?

Why?

[exotic sierra]

That’s their requirement

[wide brook]

I truly do not know anything lol

[exotic sierra]

They usually edit the photos more

[wide brook]

I guess it's easier to tell if it's real?

[exotic sierra]

https://www.crowdsupply.com/oak-dev-tech/icyblue-fpga-feather

If you look, they wash out the background

[wide brook]

So, "launching soon" will become Actually Soon?

[exotic sierra]

Hopefully

[wide brook]

Huh, TIL 🔜 is a thing. It looks Very Bad in dark mode though

[exotic sierra]

yeahhh

[crystal pier]

What license is it released under?

[exotic sierra]

a modified MIT license

the "reproduce at your own risk" license lol

[wide brook]

doesn't mit have a cya clause?

(no warranties blah blah)

[exotic sierra]

MIT includes this bit

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

I need to modify the license to include hardware in the language

simple as adding and/or hardware

[wide brook]

hmm... don't hw-specific licenses exist?

I seem to remember CERN releasing something to that effect

yeah https://cern-ohl.web.cern.ch/

[exotic sierra]

CERN OHWL is fine

but I license my software under MIT so I tend to just use a modified license

https://github.com/Oak-Development-Technologies/IcyBlue/blob/main/LICENSE

the language is a bit weird and I need to refine it a bit

[wide brook]

I'd suggest looking into hiring a lawyer once things get more profitable

[exotic sierra]

oh absolutely

[crystal pier]

CERN-OHL-P v2 is very nice. It's permissive (like MIT) but includes additional patent protection.

[exotic sierra]

I'd like to work on an Open Source License that can cover both hardware and software source files. right now it's a bit janky to do both

but i'm not a lawyer and I don't know any lawyers interested in tech that would work for free.

[wide brook]

      code which can be applied to Make or test a Product or to
      prepare a Product for use, Conveyance or sale, regardless of its
      medium or how it is expressed. It may include Notices.```
IANAL, but the CERN-OHL-P seems to cover both

[crystal pier]

CERN handles that pretty well, basically it takes a 'modular' approach.

[exotic sierra]

hmm

perhaps i'll change

[crystal pier]

It is heavily underutilized.

Although honestly I'm just relieved you aren't using GPL. That's an absolute mess when it comes to hardware.

[exotic sierra]

on the other end of the spectrum, you have Prusa talking about commitment to open source but also not really opensourcing much at all

and then Creality that kind of open sources stuff kind of steals open source stuff and tries to convince people otherwise..

and then Bamboo who ripped tons of OSS and it making bundles

we can just take it to #general-tech

[crystal pier]

Or there, yes.

Oops gotta go for now though

[exotic sierra]

👍

[wide brook]

huh, I did not know this server had access-controlled channels

til!

[exotic sierra]

Generally we don’t tag them for reasons

[split wren]

now i'm curious, what is the name!

[crystal pier]

🔒 No Access

Virtually all servers larger than a few people will have a number of access controlled channels.

[grand turtle]

how difficult was it to get into crowdsupply?

[exotic sierra]

Not terribly hard. The big thing you need to show is that you have a working prototype

[wide brook]

I am not at all surprised to read this, but I'm curious as to how said mess is produced

[fathom summit]

If someone is interested, my TOML library for CircuitPython is somewhat complete now. Please open issues/PRs (or any other sort of feedback) if you find anything that could be improved 🙂
https://github.com/elpekenin/circuitpython_toml

[grand turtle]

i made a kicad template for qtpy boards :) https://github.com/LordsBoards/Xiao-QT-Py-KiCAD-Template

[sharp bobcat]

Just wanted to share a fun weekend project: https://github.com/flavio-fernandes/scooter-boombox . Thank you for the awesome learning guide, Ruiz Brothers. ❤️
Pictures posted here: https://www.flickr.com/gp/38447095@N00/1dYq76b2zK

[low pulsar]

(not any useful feedback) but sounds like it was a fun implementation - and more fiddly than I realized 🙂 out of curiosity, did porting the python 3.11 tomllib implementation become too tricky/too big? I suppose it would be even better if it was able to implement the ful spec (warts and all)

[fathom summit]

i didnt even look for tomlib's source, just did from scratch to learn(and mees up 😛) as much as possible

[low pulsar]

nice

I guess the current circuitpython reads the settings.toml file from C in some non-compliant way? It does feel like a rather tricky format after all, and any useful implementation would tend to be on the larger side either way...

[fathom summit]

im pretty sure it happens at C level, yeah

and only supports base10 ints and strings as of now

[low pulsar]

Ack. It'd be intriguing to hear the discussion that settled on toml. I guess (bar inventing a new format or settling for csv/tsv files) it might be the best of current options

[wide brook]

I mean, ini files aren't that bad :P

[low pulsar]

Yes, lots of options (and corresponding exciting discussions on which to pick I imagine 😁. Was a bit curious it landed on something also needing a non trivial parser, but it looks like the actual subset parsed is basically the easy bits. So maybe it landed at the pragmatic place in the end.)

[wide brook]

Relevant XKCD:
https://xkcd.com/927/

xkcd: Standards

Fortunately, the charging one has been solved now that we've all standardized on mini-USB. Or is it micro-USB? Shit.

[grand turtle]

i made a BME680/nRF52840 sensor that's just a bit bigger than a 2032 coin cell

https://github.com/hlord2000/EnviroPuck/tree/main

I will probably throw on a BME688 instead that sounds fun

[lapis jasper]

toml choice was made here: https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/issues/7274

[low pulsar]

Thx, and interesting!

[lilac tundra]

I just finished assembling my camera surveillance system.

Now I need to wire and program

[low pulsar]

It looks pretty cool. What does/will it be used for?

[lilac tundra]

surveillance

it can pan and tilt

pan - lego motor on the bottom

tilt - servo on the top

[low pulsar]

Nice. Hope the rest of it goes smoothly

[lilac tundra]

yeah I am really excited because this is my first project that I am really close to finishing

all of my other projects didn't work

btw I didn't even laser cut the acrylic, it was from an Arduino car kit

[pallid saffron]

heh - i've manged to forgo the servo mounting plate and have bolted servos straight onto the technic pieces

[lilac tundra]

lucky you but this was a very snug fit so I used it

[pallid saffron]

no, looks better than my hack - i'm thinking of making some mounting plates myself

[lilac tundra]

cool

In that case I got lucky, this was a mounting plate in some kit lol

[devout verge]

What are you using to control it that supports both the lego motor and normal servos?

[lilac tundra]

I have stripped the lego motor's wire and I plan to use my L289N Module with it, the servo on the other hand will easily be controlled with my RPI's GPIO(with a capacitor)

oh and if you are wondering the camera uses USB so it will be easily integrated with the RPI

[lilac tundra]

A progress log will be provided shortly

Second Phase Completed!

Now on to coding

[tender basalt]

Check this out! You paste the link to the tutorial you need help with (needs ?view=all at the end), and it uploads it to gpt and you can ask questions about it: https://youai.ai/ais/adafruit-project-helper-unofficial-703d96d6

[lilac tundra]

alright, slight problem

the motor is so heavy that it makes everything lean one way

but it has an easy fix

[burnt wyvern]

This isn't the most technical and impressive thing here, but I just (mostly) finished this Python script that automatically detects song changes with shazamio and logs it to a text file that OBS reads and displays on my stream! I sometimes stream my record collection in a few discord servers so it's really helpful to have it automatically detect the song so I don't have to check the track list every time someone asks what song is playing.

[short summit]

That's very cool! I love that.

[burnt wyvern]

Thanks! Also I'm not sure if copyrighted music is allowed to be posted so I tried to get the least DMCA-able part I could lol

[short summit]

And thanks for letting me know about shazamio, I haven't seen that before, I might have to play with that

[vernal oak]

playing around with pi eyes on round tft's 😁

[split wren]

freaky!

[vague spruce]

Here's some pics and details of my latest greenhouse setup using ESPHome. This has used various Adafruit parts over the years but currently the only Adafruit part is the SHT40 T/RH sensor.

There are two ESP32s which bidirectionally communicate over CANBus. My goals for this upgrade:

1. operate independently without a constant network connection to my home assistant server
2. robust operation [1] with nodes able to hot plug into the network (for power failures or temp disconnects)
3. support future upgrades of various sensor nodes placed throughout the greenhouse
4. simple wiring

The larger switch box on the outside contains the main control unit which

• broadcasts CAN commands to the smaller box to turn on humidifier
• listens for broadcasts about temperature and humidity from the smaller box
• controls irrigation solenoids and a ventilation fan with Solid State Relays

The smaller box on the inside controls ultrasonic humidifier equipment and is attached to a seperate breakout box containing a temp/RH sensor for more accurate sensing. The breakout box is also fitted with a Noctua 40mm fan, which is PWM controlled.

[1] In my experience I was only able to get hot plug CANBus to work reliably with the SN65HVD230 transceiver rather than the more common TJA1051T, which is used on the Adafruit CAN Pal.

[north mural]

That is a very cleanly built system. 👍

[polar crag]

pi zero glamour shots

[crystal pier]

PCBs are very difficult to photograph.

Especially if you want the entire board in focus.

[polar crag]

yep

[crystal pier]

And cameras absolutely hate soldermask.

[exotic sierra]

Green soldermask, definitely

Purple, not as bad

I also realized I missed a perfect opportunity to call this the 40 feather

[crystal pier]

Oh I've had my share of trouble photographing OSH Park PCBs. That being said I think the issue was between the desk and chair.

[split wren]

pebkac basically?

[wise island]

This is a little board I made. It is a low cost STM32 with an IR receiver, 3axis sensor and 49 1mm RGB leds... I wanted to do something with arc traces and rotated components. Just submitted V2. This version works ok, but the LEDs are kinda dim due to the multiplexing. So that should be fixed in V2...

[polar crag]

where can I get one

that thing looks like it would be great for wearables

[wise island]

I published the project if you want to have it made. It's the version I'm having made right now... There are some buttons, diode and voltage regulator that are hand soldered on the back... https://oshwlab.com/smischny/stm32f030c8t6_copy_copy

[dark cairn]

Another freshly baked diWHY

I know I should only use it's 3v3 as ref but idc.

The wonkier the better.

[rose barn]

https://tenor.com/view/perfection-michael-fassbender-perfectionist-perfect-gif-7910211

[cunning lava]

new version of ugame22 assembled by jlcpcb arrived just in time for the circuitpython day

[north mural]

Why 8.0 alpha?

[cunning lava]

that's what I had already built, from last time I was working on it

[north mural]

Looks great. Got a little speaker and qwicc. What do you use to mount the screen to the PCB?

[cunning lava]

it's held in place by the case's front plate https://cdn.hackaday.io/images/805121661111944514.jpg

but if you don't want a case, you can use a two-sided tape

[grave owl]

https://github.com/d3k4-k3rb3r0s/CarWash

[red pebble]

Smoker temperature controller based on ESP32 boards in work:

that's the pendant controller breakout board

and the main controller breakout board:

boards are on order from seeed fusion

designed in Eagle

The boards will communicate with one another via ESP-Now

This is an incredibly slow PID loop trying to control the temperature of an egg style charcoal smoker

I'm running a pair of PT100 sensors, one measures air temperature and one can measure the meat temperature

[wraith hearth]

Can't wait to show off my project once my 3d printers print well enough lol

[slim finch]

I couldn't get my writeup for this project finished in time for circuit python day, but for the past year I've been building a sleep sensor system that integrates with the rest of my home. Based on the amount of sleep I've gotten recently, it'll turn of or "sunset" the plant lights in my living room at night to encourage an earlier bedtime when I'm tired. It also toggles the bedroom RGB LEDs to red patterns at night, and turns off the lights when I fall asleep, and in the morning it turns off the 'wake up blue' lights once both my partner and myself are out of bed. The sensors are MPU-6050 IMUs connect to the bedframe by a magnetically attached, 3d printed enclosure, and connect to a QT Py ESP32-S2 which gathers the data from the IMU and transmits it to a local server on a Raspberry Pi running Flask. The data is processed and based on that, and the recent sleep history, my home adjusts its lighting states and modes to help me get better sleep. The whole design is fairly low power and out of the way so my robot vacuum can get under the bed without issue and I don't need to worry about stray wires getting caught by it. It wouldn't be possible without CircuitPython.

[west zinc]

Just got this Makerfabs ESP32-S3 7-inch touchscreen GT911 touch chip working. Yay for CircuitPython day!

[north mural]

You could do it with a Fitbit watch too. It has sleep detection based on heart rate and sp02. The Fitbit API example I wrote could easily pull sleep data and oodles of other data to integrate with whatever you want. Fitbit devices however are not cheap. When it comes to heart rate & sleep, they're very accurate. It even tracks your REM cycles. Fitbit (unlike Apple watches) allows you to pull your own data and do whatever you want with it. As a DIY solution your work is very impressive according to the graphs. I think you would really love playing with all the data a fitbit makes available to you.

[slim finch]

That is really cool and the fitbit project you've been working has been awesome to see!

For me the fitbit isn't an option because I don't wear one and I don't want to 'clock into bed' by remembering to put it on each day. That was a primary design constraint of the build for me--tracking sleep in a completely out of the way fashion that doesn't impede any chores, and so I don't have to 'live around' the sensor. But I've loved seeing the updates and I didn't know the api gave access to quality of sleep data too! It's been fun seeing how much you've done with that data!

[kind burrow]

This project is a total clone of Liz's "Feather RP2040 DVI Video Synth", except using a Pico. (And I don't have a 3D printer, so it's a thin wooden "craft" board from Walmart that I drilled holes thru).
The only changes to Learn guide are for Pico pins, not Feather RP2040. Picowbell DVI.
The buttons are one cheapo from Ada (Product 3105) that I soldered leads to (for the LED light), and a QT PY Neo BFF (I like the big button...)
The pot wiring underneath is a challenge, but what multiple wiring project isn't? 😀

[north valve]

Not in time for CircuitPython Day but I finally finished up code for an environment eink display that posts CO2, temperature, humidity, and pressure to Adafruit IO
Spent lots of time learning displayio on eink as well as learning more about the SCD40 and BMP280 sensors. Thank you to all the contributors of those learning guides and libraries.

https://www.somenice.com/2023/08/environmental-sensing-using-an-eink-display-and-circuitpython/

[last bronze]

While trying to somehow set my oscilloscope for X-Y mode I came across some nice looking patterns, enjoy

Possibly more to come as I still haven't figured out the XY mode 😂

[frosty topaz]

Take one of my super simple 3d printed light and sound box. It will probably become my pomodoro timer at home, but I misplaced my cylindrical battery and forgot to include an on/off switch…
Built with a propmaker rp2040 and an 8x8 neomatrix, it’ll eventually have a little 3d printed figure of some sort on top of the lights. It includes a speaker for notifications, and an accelerometer for tap detection.

[north mural]

successfully took apart a 16 pin IDC cable. tiny little punch downs in it. then proceeded to break it while crimping. win some, lose some.

because i got the big 5mm pitch panels the included cables will not reach vertically and adafruit is out of stock. so i got some ribbon cable from digikey which was the perfect fit but then broke the connector. will have just have to source some longer cables. i do not want to attempt that again, need a microscope and not worth the hassle.

Can't connect all the panels together now. 😦

[dark cairn]

beeeeeg repl go brr

[pallid saffron]

https://giphy.com/gifs/maudit-maudit-frankenstein-boris-karloff-tze1mGedykiuk

https://photos.app.goo.gl/kbX7RqrUJzGBtbQW7

[sand grotto]

I like the CO2 gas icon on the dashboard. And all of it of course, the eink display / font is nice n clear 🙂

[lucid bloom]

Next Wednesday will mark 3 years of using my food pantry ordering system. It has been used hundreds of times for thousands of orders. It's made up of a pi zero w and a pi 3B. The total cost of the hardware was $250-$300 for the number machine and the number sign and it is connected to about $1200/year worth of discounted services. It may not be the best system but it works and I can count the number of issues we have had over 3 years on my hands all of which were related to service outages.
https://github.com/matt-desmarais/FoodPantrySystem

[lucid bloom]

Except for that one time the receipt paper ran out during startup and crashed everything 🙄

[north mural]

Half brrr then hard fault more often than not. There are a lot of bugs lately.

[north mural]

Ever hear back about your contest entry for your efficiency gains?

[lucid bloom]

its not announced until November 16th. if i win I'm on the hook for

in Boston, at other H2HC meetings, and will be available for H2HC media relations or other related purposes.```

It would be cool if I won but if I don't I won't lose sleep over it, I already got to talk at a new hope which was pretty cool and I get to assist people in my town who need help from behind the scenes. Most clients don't even know my name.

[north mural]

Got the MatrixPortal S3 working with 4x 64x32 5mm pitch panels (on a circuit python 9.0 alpha build).

[north mural]

Sometimes it's better to be known for what you do. What you do becomes part of who you are.

[lucid bloom]

Some people know and a few know everything, its just the most of the people we serve don't really know who I am or what I do because I'm in the back room packing up the orders.

[crystal pier]

Most clients don't even know my name
Batman.

[restive forum]

https://tenor.com/view/fatman-im-here-cape-batman-gif-16964844

[lucid bloom]

I'm closer to the accountant than I am to batman

https://tenor.com/view/the-accountant-ben-affleck-blowing-brush-it-off-casual-gif-6158657

[restive forum]

At least he managed one, last good film before he ruined Batman...

[crystal pier]

Who?

[exotic sierra]

Affleck?

[exotic sierra]

Ben Affleck Batman were considered the best more recent Batman movies. Better than George Clooney Batman

[restive forum]

A dead potato would do a better job, compared to Clooney and his Batnipples. 😅

[exotic sierra]

Nothing will be 1966 Adam West Batman movie

Lol

[restive forum]

Ohh lawd... that's terribad.

[exotic sierra]

Don’t dis Adam west, he’s a true Batman icon lol

Speaking of 1966 Batman: for your enjoyment 🙂 https://youtu.be/fjNks6EUO6E

[restive forum]

Ohh, don't get me wrong.. Mayor Adam West is an absolute Legend.

Just saying the cheese and ham 1960s Batman is just so horrendously dated it feels more like a parody.

[exotic sierra]

That’s the allure 😉

[restive forum]

Hehehe

[exotic sierra]

Jokes aside, 1990s Batman is my favorite

[restive forum]

I'm going to need more coffee for that camp.

[exotic sierra]

Something about fighting a frozen Arnold is very satisfying

[restive forum]

Ohh, Arnie was the highlight.

The only reason to watch.

[exotic sierra]

Plus penguin being played by Danny Devito

Classic

[restive forum]

👍

[exotic sierra]

Anyway, we’re a bit off topic for this chat lol

[restive forum]

😅

[pallid saffron]

IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SILLY!

[pallid saffron]

Hey, you were the one saying it was cheesy 😀

And it is over 50 years old, so "dated" is accurate (also describes me, but that's a different story)

[exotic sierra]

I ate a lot of dates as a kid, so I’m probably pretty dated as well

[pallid saffron]

🥁 🥁 💥(rimshot?) -- had to edit around a cat

[crystal pier]

Oh no.

[wide brook]

Apparently, it'll run on ms azure, which might hopefully prevent reliving the exploit-laden memories of VBA

[crystal pier]

Great, so it'll require a cloud subscription.

[fathom summit]

and internet connection
and then pay to use somemost features

[crystal pier]

All this when you could just ditch excel and use python in the first place.

[stiff kestrel]

X86 Bootloader (512 bytes) text editor

[north mural]

I'm not even sure what I just watched there

MatrixPortal S3 feather weather coming together nicely on 4 panels. It's 128x64. I want to do a 256x128 but I'm not sure if it'll work. Need moar screen real estate.

[split wren]

when booting x86 in legacy mode, the bios loads the first 512 bytes of the disk into ram, and executes it

[devout verge]

Finally a use for the old windows laptops I have lying around

[split wren]

or just install linux
it should have zero trouble running text editors for things like circuitpython

[kind burrow]

Thanks to JEPLER from the CP Day 2023 session! Full disclosure (open source?), I took his WrappedTextDisplay class here:
https://learn.adafruit.com/infinite-text-adventure/coding-the-infinite-adventure
modified, took out a lot of code and some generic calculations (hard-coded some values for my display).
Nice! Thanks!

[last bronze]

@wide brook got the little almost-digital one! 😍

[pallid saffron]

that's.... adorable?

[restive forum]

No, it's a scope. 😅

[wide brook]

It's... an oscilloscope with a distance measurement? o_O

[solar yew]

Wait... oscilloscopes have that now?

[last bronze]

there's a resistor between the ends 😂

it has a voltmeter and a resistance meter

no distance yet :p

[last bronze]

it has a carrying handle and a front cover, basically a travelscope 😂

[wide brook]

I got autocorrect'd: resistance -> distance

[last bronze]

ahhhh

was wondering why you thought about distance

[wide brook]

Do you know who manufactured this?

[last bronze]

lemme find the name, I know it's latvian for sure

Vilnius Plant of Radio Measurement Devices

[wide brook]

That's not a catchy name :P

(Yeah, I know why the manufacturer name is like this)

[last bronze]

it was supposed to work, not sound catchy 😛

it's fairly modern, around 1990

[wide brook]

Why is there a high voltage warning over the probe connectors?

[last bronze]

cause it supports measurements up to 1kV 😄

[wide brook]

*supported . I wouldn't trust it now :P

[split wren]

my scope only says <=400v peak

[wide brook]

Unless it's undergone significant service

[last bronze]

I would tbh, the measurements are only ~1% away from my brymen

[split wren]

my scope is already arcing over internally, something with the crt

[last bronze]

and it was properly stored, isn't even dirty inside

[wide brook]

Nah, I meant I wouldn't trust it to safely measure 1kV w/o significant service

[last bronze]

show da scope 👀

ahhh

[split wren]

a photo from earlier, when i was working with pwm audio on it

[last bronze]

tbh it's a really convenient multi tool, not exactly great when it comes to specs, but 10MHz is enough for most measurements I do 😄

[split wren]

and an older shot, when i bit-banged 125mhz on a pi4, lol

[last bronze]

I want an analog-digital scope so much

[split wren]

something is clearly struggling, but the scope is only rated for 100mhz, so i dont know what to blame

[last bronze]

there's something about text on a monochrome crt that makes it look so good

[wide brook]

I was about to say that your scope appears to be experiencing bandwidth difficulties

[last bronze]

only 100MHz

[split wren]

i'm fuzzy on the exact sample rate, how did i measure a 125mhz on a 100mhz scope?

and its not aliasing

adding a nop into the delay slowed it to 80mhz

[last bronze]

@wide brook I'm wondering if I should try to collect all the C1 series scopes, all the way from 1 to 199 I think 😂

[wide brook]

no

[last bronze]

already got the 64 and 112, only 98 to go

[wide brook]

I do not recommend collecting o-scopes

[last bronze]

why

:^)

[split wren]

a better photo

[last bronze]

nice!

[split wren]

the crt photographs better in the dark

[wide brook]

most crts do

[split wren]

thats why all of the trace photos are in the dark

what you cant see, is that this is the full depth of the dresser

[last bronze]

that's my big boi

a 50MHz soviet chonker with X-Y mode that requires configuration beyond my understanding of knob-turning

[wide brook]

Time to open an ebay shop and start flipping them :P

[last bronze]

nuh!

[split wren]

ive also got a carry handle on mine

[last bronze]

the chonker is a gift from a teacher, never flipping him 😛

[split wren]

and here is the whole desk setup

[last bronze]

the big one's got it too, but it still weighs 20kg so it's not exactly portable 😄

[wide brook]

That's something I'd expect to see posted on an IRC channel some years ago :P

[split wren]

lol

[last bronze]

It does have an IRC vibe

[split wren]

the far left monitor is for rpi usage, currently running into a drawer under the central monitor

[last bronze]

Here's my current "setup"

Pardon for the mess on da desk but I had to repair my rpi between working on my soviet generator lol

[last bronze]

Is that discord but cli?

[wide brook]

Is that... irssi? 🙀

[split wren]

that drawer is full of pi's, it has ethernet, composite, usb, and vga

yes, that is irssi

[wide brook]

Running over screen, as it should :P

[split wren]

yep!

the little red switch hanging out of the drawer, goes to the reset pins on the pi

so when i'm working on code, i just have a tiny switch hanging above the keyboard, and i whack that after each build

[wide brook]

Please tell me it's running on a remote VPS :P

[split wren]

its running on an ancient gentoo box in the other room

which never reboots and never gets updates

[wide brook]

How do you send the code to the pi?

JTAG?

[split wren]

c2d ~ # ls -lh /usr/bin/irssi 
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1.1M Oct 26  2014 /usr/bin/irssi

[wide brook]

Sounds like a good way to eventually get pwned

[split wren]

its usually configured for network boot, but i also use usb-device boot sometimes

[wide brook]

Wait, how can it netboot without firmware?

[split wren]

the pi3 has netboot support right in the boot rom

the pi1/pi2 can netboot if the SD card has only bootcode.bin and nothing else

the zeros will go into usb-device mode if they fail all other boot sources

so, if i just plug a pi-zero into my pc...

[Mon Aug 28 18:36:29 2023] usb 1-12.1: new full-speed USB device number 122 using xhci_hcd
[Mon Aug 28 18:36:29 2023] usb 1-12.1: New USB device found, idVendor=0a5c, idProduct=2763, bcdDevice= 0.00
[Mon Aug 28 18:36:29 2023] usb 1-12.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[Mon Aug 28 18:36:29 2023] usb 1-12.1: Product: BCM2708 Boot
[Mon Aug 28 18:36:29 2023] usb 1-12.1: Manufacturer: Broadcom

this pops up

Bus 001 Device 122: ID 0a5c:2763 Broadcom Corp. BCM2708 Boot

and a pi02w
Bus 001 Device 123: ID 0a5c:2764 Broadcom Corp. BCM2710 Boot

[clever@amd-nixos:~/apps/rpi/usbboot]$ ls ../circuitpython/ports/broadcom/build-raspberrypi_zero/rpiboot
bcm2708-rpi-b.dtb       bcm2708-rpi-cm.dtb      bcm2709-rpi-2-b.dtb  bcm2710-rpi-3-b-plus.dtb  bcm2710-rpi-zero-2-w.dtb  bcm2711-rpi-cm4.dtb  fixup4cd.dat  fixup4x.dat   fixup_db.dat  start4cd.elf  start4x.elf   start.elf
bcm2708-rpi-b-plus.dtb  bcm2708-rpi-zero.dtb    bcm2710-rpi-2-b.dtb  bcm2710-rpi-cm3.dtb       bcm2711-rpi-400.dtb       bootcode.bin         fixup4.dat    fixup_cd.dat  fixup_x.dat   start4db.elf  start_cd.elf  start_x.elf
bcm2708-rpi-b-rev1.dtb  bcm2708-rpi-zero-w.dtb  bcm2710-rpi-3-b.dtb  bcm2710-rpi-zero-2.dtb    bcm2711-rpi-4-b.dtb       config.txt           fixup4db.dat  fixup.dat     kernel.img    start4.elf    start_db.elf

[clever@amd-nixos:~/apps/rpi/usbboot]$ sudo ./rpiboot -m 1000000 -l -d ../circuitpython/ports/broadcom/build-raspberrypi_zero/rpiboot/
[sudo] password for clever: 
Loading: ../circuitpython/ports/broadcom/build-raspberrypi_zero/rpiboot//bootcode.bin
Waiting for BCM2835/6/7/2711...

@wide brook if you then put all of the normal /boot files into a directory, and point rpiboot at it, you can boot the pi over usb-device

in this case, make BOARD=raspberrypi_zero rpiboot prepares that directory for me

so i can iterate on circuitpython builds without uSD swapping

[Mon Aug 28 18:40:53 2023] usb 1-12.1: New USB device found, idVendor=0a5c, idProduct=2763, bcdDevice= 0.00
[Mon Aug 28 18:40:57 2023] usb 1-12.1: New USB device found, idVendor=0a5c, idProduct=2764, bcdDevice= 0.00
[Mon Aug 28 18:41:06 2023] usb 1-12.1: New USB device found, idVendor=2e8a, idProduct=100e, bcdDevice= 1.00

it will enumerate 3 times during boot
first from the maskrom
then from the firmware
then from circuitpython

[wide brook]

Is this done over tftp or something, like PXE?

[split wren]

a custom usb protocol

[split wren]

https://github.com/raspberrypi/usbboot/blob/master/main.c

basically the same idea as to how circuitpython emulates hid/msd/midi

the rom is just doing a custom protocol, which no drivers exist for
and this code then uses libusb to drive it

[wide brook]

Sorry, I skimmed the chat and thought rpiboot was doing the netboot...

[split wren]

nope

but netboot is tftp

for the pi models with ethernet (all of the b family, the pi400, and the cm4), it will fetch the /boot files over tftp, when doing netboot

pi3 can fetch bootcode.bin over tftp, directly from the rom, with the dram still offline!

pi1/pi2 need a copy of bootcode.bin on an SD card

pi4/pi400/cm4 always has bootcode.bin onboard in SPI flash

the .bin then fetches start(4).elf over tftp, which then fetches your arm kernel

[wide brook]

wait, if dram has not been brought up, where is it storing bootcode.bin?

[split wren]

in the 128kb L2 cache

[wide brook]

For some reason, I did not expect the videocore to have an L2 cache 😆

Or an L1. Or any cache, for that matter

[split wren]

the videocore used to run the entire os, back before the SoC had an arm

[wide brook]

I know. But somehow I.... IDK why I even thought that actually lol

[split wren]

lets head over to #1133148976691032104 to not spam this room up too much

[autumn gorge]

first time making anything like this. its used for spotify API it will use 4 mechanical keyboard switches and a potentiometer to control spotify. now i just gotta code

[last bronze]

Got any case for it? :p

[stark latch]

Prototyping a 2x3 keypad with a few non-standard characters. The protoboard with the M0 Feather and OLED display will eventually be replaced with a Trinket.

[autumn gorge]

not yet

[last bronze]

@wide brook I finally have 2 faces of disappointment

[grand turtle]

designed this 6 port usb hub w/ an esp32-s3

also breaks out a bunch of gpio, 5V, 3.3V, and various peripherals for debugging. each usb port has an led indicator and a load switch to turn it off.

[sand grotto]

That looks great! By chance do you know if there is an easy way that the data lines can be disconnected separately from the power lines? Currently using expensive dpdt relays on an old prototype.

[grand turtle]

the hub IC stops communication through software iirc

[stark latch]

I decided to make a practical example of a custom keypad using the parametric keyboard OpenSCAD code I've been working on. This is a 6-key keypad for my laptop. The keys are: en dash, em dash, degree, superscript 2, pi and multiplication sign. The only non-printed parts are the Trinket M0, the 6mm tactile switches and a few pieces of wire (about $10 total).

[pallid saffron]

since i now have a small "fleet" (and growing) of raspberry pi spread out across the domicile, i added an MQTT-based "alive check" and a display (i decided it would be more amusing without using a printer or label maker)

[split wren]

heh

ive just been using prometheus and grafana, and could setup alerts in discord for that

[pallid saffron]

i've got an MQTT server running because of HomeAssistant, so it was just "there"

[split wren]

yeah, ive also got MQTT so HA can talk to my old thermostat setup

[pallid saffron]

this way i also don't have to have a browser open (they are running at 0.005 brightness 😎 )

[split wren]

grafana is configured to leave a message in discord if things go out of bounds

so i could close the browser and still be reminded when things start to go wrong

[pallid saffron]

yeah i did stuff like that when i was working -- i'm really old school and like the "blinken lights"

[split wren]

yeah, i just ripped the whole grafana server from my job, lol

the login page is still setup to only allow people from my work g-suite acct

[pallid saffron]

why? you can just run a docker image and set it up yourself

[split wren]

so any co-worker could be snoopin on my graphs

it is running on my own hardware, i just copied the config files from my job

and i dont need docker, nixos does things just fine

[limber briar]

Seems nice. Is your openscad code open source?
What did you use to print the keycaps?

[stark latch]

Still working on the OpenSCAD code, but I'll post it on Printables when it's stable. The entire thing (aside from the Trinket and switches) was printed in PLA on a Prusa MK3. All of it's in black except a thin layer of white for contrast on the recessed key text. The STLs and Arduino code are posted here: https://www.printables.com/model/569035-6-key-usb-keypad
It's currently only set up to generate Windows key sequences, though. Hoping I can figure out a way to detect OS and switch accordingly.

[limber briar]

Thank you very much

[last bronze]

Smol boi

[wide brook]

Hey, I recognize that brand! It's "ELEKTRONIKA"(spelling/transliteration error?)!

[last bronze]

Yup

[wide brook]

Did you seriously pass the pi through an UHF modulator to get it to display on the screen? :P

[last bronze]

Yup :p

[half echo]

Great work!
I've been tinkering with FreeCAD myself instead and made a macro that spits out a keyboard plate.
https://github.com/Axeia/KeyboardGenerator

[stark latch]

Nice!

[half echo]

Well that was fun, got my Banana Pi Leaf S3 to display my PCs temperatures 🙂
https://youtu.be/1HS-VA6bWbc

I guess this marks my first semi-serious/useful project.
Excuse my phone struggling with the exposure

[short summit]

very nice! glad you got it working

[burnt wyvern]

Im at a museum in Norway, thought I'd show this. It's apparently for a genetics related device? I couldn't find much info on it.

They also had a laptop motherboard on display for some reason lol

[high imp]

Some work on a 64x64 adafruit matrix display

https://youtu.be/hoFy992Y98c

[final lake]

Is "Show and Tell" only for hardware and project related things or is it also possible to join with a software, like a module or lib that one created?

[languid nebula]

I have seen soft projects as well

[north mural]

Having a demo to show what the software does is kind of the whole point. If you want to show a library then you should have an example of what the library does. To keep it brief as possible you could even play a pre-recorded demo with OBS.

Here's a good example of a ton of code I wrote in a pre-recorded demo. Showing the code itself is boring to most people without the end result. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdJcgPCqKFE

[clever stone]

I have been disassembling and reversing a badge from the folks at IRONWOOD CYBER. They put a lot more effort in the hardware and software of their creation than just about anyone. While tracing the PCB I realized they had connections to the 3D printed retaining clips around the edge. I thought these chips were just to hold things together. But they were actually printed with conductive filament and form the touch pads!
The copper colored PLA cover is just decorative. It’s the black PLA that is conductive.

[exotic sierra]

That’s really inventive

Thanks for sharing this cool find

[feral orchid]

Back with more Tesla coil stuff. This is a single mosfet true class E driven coil.

[feral orchid]

https://youtu.be/60tsf3CVv9Q?si=coDKL0k5J8p2OpGc

And music

[rose barn]

Does it accept arbitrary songs?

[feral orchid]

Somewhat (only square wave audio and midis that have been converted to square wave). I'm still working on some stuff to make the music sound better. Only very few specific songs actually sound good on it. The rest get garbled during some of the song or completely distorted

[cedar dew]

“These are not the lights you are looking for”

I added some pixels to my Hex-Wall activated by a gesture sensor

[rose barn]

Wow!!

[feral orchid]

Nice

[sand grotto]

Today I learned about rr
Replayable debugging from mozilla https://rr-project.org/

[lapis jasper]

Preview for tonight. Custom sized boxes to store dev boards/flat things in an Ikea bookshelf.

[pallid saffron]

pizza pi anyone?

[proven coral]

@sand grotto if you are using kicad for development, check out the usb3740b-ai2 and usb3470b-ai9. $1.09 USD from digikey.com the ai9 might be easier to hand solder as it is .5mm pitch UQFN. it's a USB DP DM switch chip. It might be a good idea to have the disconnected side of the switch terminated in some way.

[sand grotto]

Oh legend, I've had a beer, so will digest this properly another day 😄 Happy with smt/heat gun so probably try them all

[proven coral]

Glad to help. I'm familiar with some of these kind of chips because I was actually designing a device that could swap the TX/RX pins on the outside to the correct pins on the RP2040.

[sand grotto]

Classic, yeah my original thought for similar, but then I got an actual need where two usbs had to be reconnected at software will, and one needed full disconnection

[proven coral]

In response to render posted by Adafruit on instagram. Uses the 4" touch screen for a numeric keypad... and maybe a little more.

[sand grotto]

love the translucent key-mechanisms

[proven coral]

it's a poor render actually. the glass is a stand in for the actual display in a fusion360 render.

[sand grotto]

🙂 Always room for improvement I guess, I am also plagued by perfectionism

[proven coral]

Voltaire: Perfect is the enemy of good.

[sand grotto]

at the very least the enemy of done 🙂

[proven coral]

That appears to be a further refinement of Voltaire's original quote. If it's good, it is done.

Slightly better view

[sand grotto]

lovely

[cunning lava]

got the xiao sense camera working in circuitpython

[lucid bloom]

Phase one of my project is complete rather than go for the goal from the start I'm doing it in phases.

1. Object detection
2. Pan tilt camera object detection/object tracking/firing solution for multiple detected objects
3. Build an airsoft turret
   After phase 2 is done the code will be done and then it's just a matter of constructing a turret that I already know will be functional.

[last bronze]

I love how the huge pew pew appears on the screen lmao

[lucid bloom]

my approach is to have moving and firing be separate threads so if it moves across a pew pew zone then it will fire regardless of how its moving. I may be able to just have it pan back and forth and then it would pew if it was panning across an object

[dark cairn]

https://github.com/bill88t/CircuitPython_FTP_Server/blob/main/ftp.py
Finally done!

[exotic sierra]

I’m curious now.. I want to try using this to update a bin file and reprogram an fpga

[dark cairn]

It can pass megabyte sized files just fine

I did check sums

[exotic sierra]

I think my files are less than 80kb

[dark cairn]

It's slower downloading off of the boards, around 11kb.
For uploading it goes up to 200kb

That on a dio flash board

[dark cairn]

serve_till_quit exists for such scenarios
The main implementation is non-blocking!

[exotic sierra]

Gotcha, can it write it right to the cirpy drive?

[dark cairn]

ya, no deps pretty much

[exotic sierra]

Sweet

[dark cairn]

Not all clients will work with it however. It only supports one active connection. Filezilla is working a-ok tho.
Oh and web-workflow needs to be off, since it triggers a socket bug when in combination with the ftp server.

I have not made the readme yet.

I just finished the thing.

[exotic sierra]

Gotcha, I haven’t used web workflow in a while

[dark cairn]

I will make full notes, docs and examples by tomorrow if you wanna check back!

[exotic sierra]

Sounds good

[dusk zinc]

@dark cairn looks cool! intended to be run from boot.py due to remount?

[dark cairn]

nah, just regular code.py

[dark cairn]

it does the remounts on it's own when it needs a write

[dusk zinc]

but you can't remount in code.py?

[dark cairn]

you can if you disable usb

[dusk zinc]

but if it's off of USB, it can remount in boot.py then run this as code.py

ah

gotcha

[dark cairn]

it will fail graceully if you try to write with the board having usb on

it can operate readonly just fine

it's for boards without usb for the most part

you can just disable usb if you want rw just like how I do

and have safemode for usb

[dusk zinc]

yup, that works

[dark cairn]

I just toggle it with boot.py and settings.toml

[last bronze]

@wide brook got another one for free 😂

[exotic sierra]

Hey all, I’m closing down my Tindie shop, but before then I’m selling everything 30% off. If you’re interested, my shop is here: https://www.tindie.com/stores/oakdevtech/

[last bronze]

why are u closing? just out of curiosity

[exotic sierra]

Things aren’t working out, sales are not enough to try and keep things going.

[last bronze]

ah

[exotic sierra]

Things took a hit last year when musk took over twitter which caused a combined exodus of both my community and overall reach of content. Things just aren’t the same anywhere anymore. I know a handful of maker businesses who are throwing in the towel because things have gotten so bad

[last bronze]

:C

had no idea the twitter takeover had such an impact on businesses

[restive forum]

Ohh, yeah.. even my employer's engagement on Twitter dropped harshly.. but it's not massively relevant to overall business prospects.

[drifting crater]

Made a little weather display that uses an EPaper screen, ESP32, and Powerboost 500 + 2000 mAH battery. The case is made of poster board lol. There are magnets on the back to allow it to stick to the fridge. (I had to use 8 of them, the battery is pretty heavy!) It's been running for a couple of days so far, and still no low power symbol.

[exotic sierra]

Looking at Adafruit’s twitter. They pay for a blue check and have over 225k followers. They’re struggling to get over 6k impressions per post

[exotic sierra]

Nice work! It looks really nice

[restive forum]

Yeah, Elongated Muskrat really messed things up.

[candid crescent]

Definitely sad news. I had ambitions to eventually do a Tindie shop myself one day, so your example has been inspiring over the last couple of years. 🫡

[exotic sierra]

Probably easier to do as a hobby shop than anything serious

[wide brook]

Looks lovely! Which display did you use?

[drifting crater]

Waveshare's 4.2in epaper display

[wide brook]

thanks!

[cedar dew]

I finally mounted my discs and batons and I made electric circuit pieces with channels for the wires.

[north mural]

That's a really nice wall. I like the circuit design element too.

[exotic sierra]

Teaching my son to solder using permaproto from Adafruit and some LEDs

[north mural]

i like the idea of the battery plug on the + & - on the permaproto, i've never seen that done before. makes a lot of sense.

[cunning lava]

reading qr codes works pretty well too

[exotic sierra]

Next one I’m doing will use potentiometers to mix and make more colors

[split wren]

heard of the wpa qrcode thing?

echo 'WIFI:S:name;T:WPA;P:password;;' | qrencode -o wifi-test.png

if you try to scan that code on a phone, it will offer to auto-connect to name with password and WPA

with the above code, you could auto-store that to NVM and bring an esp32 into the network

[devout verge]

Yeah that’s a really helpful feature. Whenever someone new comes to my house I just show them the QR code instead of reciting the SSID and password (even though I do have it memorized)

[proven coral]

ouch, sorry to hear that @exotic sierra . And here I was looking forward to having the money to buy one of your fpga feathers.

[proven coral]

My samsung has the ability to share ssid and passphrase via qr code right from the wifi connection screen. This is helpful for my home wifi because the passphrase is 63 random letters and numbers. I don't want to spend the time to memorize it.

[cunning lava]

doing some tests on gifio

[grand turtle]

Successfully running zephyr on esp32s3 n4r2 feather (i made a PR to have it added to zephyr)

Feat new bioimpedance featherwing

[kind burrow]

Howdy . I adapted this PyPortal project (I don't have one) to my Qt Py ESP32 and ILI9341 TFT. Good exercise for me converting to a totally different display and wifi code than the dedicated PyPortal.
Took some tweaking width/height numbers to fit on my display, but looks good. I'm bypassing low values (like 1), so there's not so many bars.
https://learn.adafruit.com/pyportal-uv-index/code

[north mural]

Now driving 9 matrix panels with the Matrix Portal S3.

[sand grotto]

What's the tearing / refresh speed etc like, or is that for later stream 😉

[north mural]

It's manually refreshing every 30 seconds and only for about 2 seconds to update the label. There's a lot of static/glitching with that many panels, can't use auto_refresh.

It's almost like a requests type of project with a polling rate of 30 seconds from a stemma bme688 sensor.

It looks better in real life. Trying to take a picture without scanlines is tough. Can't see any scanline in real life.

Yes will be on Show & Tell tonight with it. Trying to hurry up and print 2 more quad brackets. At 2.5 hours per bracket going to take 5 hours.

[cunning lava]

first animation

[sand grotto]

the curse of 3d printing

[scenic siren]

That is adorable. 😊

[cunning lava]

thanks, I'm trying to do it in a style that is simple enough to animate, but still cute

[north mural]

Love it!

[north mural]

Tried adding a 4th row right before show and tell to surprise everyone with 12 panels but didn't quite work out.

here's the back of the 9 panel setup.

[lucid bloom]

I enjoy the coding the most out of the different aspects of a project so I got the minimum required hardware that I could start coding a smart turret. this is the scanning sequence i came up with for it to do if no targets are detected.

    while time.monotonic() - start_time < 300:
        # Pan to the left (negative direction)
        while pan > min_angle:
            if(len(targets) != 0):
                break
            panServo.set_angle(pan)
            pan -= pan_increment
            time.sleep(scan_delay)
        while(len(targets) != 0):
            time.sleep(2)
        # Pan back to the right (positive direction)
        while pan < max_angle:
            if(len(targets) != 0):
                break
            panServo.set_angle(pan)
            pan += pan_increment
            time.sleep(scan_delay)
        while(len(targets) != 0):
            time.sleep(2)

I use the picamera2 event loop, I use the pre callback to detect objects/draw boxes/decide to fire and then the post callback to move around based on how many objects are detected. I'm still far from done and the code needs to be cleaned up but it is functional.
0 objects, scan
1 object, track and fire
2 objects, bounce back and forth and fire
3+ objects, constantly fire and berserker mode
https://gist.github.com/matt-desmarais/efe892120065fe94dade1eacee20fae8

[north mural]

Got 12 panels working now. Github Project Page: https://github.com/DJDevon3/My_Circuit_Python_Projects/tree/main/Boards/espressif/Adafruit MatrixPortal S3/192x128 RGB Matrix

[eternal maple]

This is amazing progress. What power supply capacity are you using now?

[north mural]

2x 5V 18A PSU's. Each is powering 6 panels.

[eternal maple]

Wow. Creating your own weather with those, eh?

[north mural]

Can do up to 4 bit depth comfortably. 5 creates scan lines that hurt the eyes. It's twice as bright in real life than in the picture.

This is bit depth 4, the previous picture was bit depth 3.

I think I can add more but I'd run out of wall space. This is as large as I want to go.

[eternal maple]

I haven’t looked at the HUB75 signals with a scope yet, so I’m not certain about how nicely the signals propagate from panel to panel vis-a-vis bit depth.

Again, excellent work and perseverance on this. You definitely rock in my book.

[north mural]

With video you can see the scan lines of bit depth 4 with shutter speed but you don't see them in real life.

this is bit depth 4, cannot see scan lines in real life, easy on the eyes

that's bit depth 5, can see scan lines in real life, very hard on the eyes. Worth noting that I do not have auto_refresh enabled. Only "updates" once every 30 seconds.

[eternal maple]

That’s an interesting noise artifact. Wonder if sign manufacturers use shielded interconnection cables and a ground plane enclosure/mounting system.

[north mural]

I think it's just a matter of the CPU blitting speed. Most signage would use a 1080p signal with very specialized boards capable of sending the signal much faster.

Using RGBMatrix and framebufferio, unsure if there's a way to overclock the frequency.

or duty cycle or whatever

[eternal maple]

Yeah, but they’d be blitting at the cable interface in the same manner. I’m guessing that the panel is either picking up noise via the signal path or power supply, or there’s some sort of data clock sync timing issue. Might need to allow data lines to settle before applying the clock pulse.

I’m officially out of my wheelhouse now.

[north mural]

so am i, not many people have done a matrix this big, at least not with circuit python

[north mural]

As Jepler pointed out the length of the signal at that size might degrade too. Each row of 3 is 38" x4 rows is 152" for the main data bus line to travel.

I don't know if each hub has a 5V data line booster. It would make sense if it does but I don't know that for a fact.

[eternal maple]

I assumed that each panel buffers the output data to the next. Time to pull the schematics.

… and get out the o’scope

[north mural]

eh I'm happy enough with 12 panels. if someone wants to make a bigger matrix i'll let them sort out the schematics.

I don't have a scope

I just hook things up... and pray. 😛

[eternal maple]

Of course there’s an excellent Adafruit learning guide that describes the interface protocol and limitations. Starting to get an understanding of the complexity, particularly for how bit-depth is managed. Amazing that it works so well on small microcontrollers. https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/downloads/pdf/32x16-32x32-rgb-led-matrix.pdf

[north mural]

If the max is 50hz how can I tell what Hz RGBMatrix and frambufferio are running at?

[eternal maple]

Are you referring to the measured data transfer limit of around 50MHz? I’m thinking that the driver sends an “on” for a particular pixel color in amongst the data for all pixels in a row then turns it “off” (by readdressing that row) after a delay proportional to the desired pixel brightness. There’s a whole lot of data refreshing going on especially when the bit depth is > 1.

So the data transfer rate and display blanking rate are configured in the driver somewhere, certainly limited by CPU clock/timer parameters.

[north mural]

I’m more used to working with tft’s so I equate it to a refresh rate?

[eternal maple]

My understanding isn’t quite there yet. Will need more time with the whiteboard.

[north mural]

At the end of the pdf ryan says 50hz works best. On tablet so can’t copy/paste from a pdf for some reason.

[eternal maple]

But in general, the driver must be sending row data (and corresponding addressing) at a rate proportional to the bit depth —with a fixed, albeit very high, pixel data but rate. Higher bit depth = slower frame refresh rate.

[north mural]

More color = more data. Lines up with my experience so far.

[eternal maple]

More colors = more pixel brightness levels

This page?

[north mural]

The bit depth does have a correlation with performance and scan lines. Ive done bit depth 6 once without it hard faulting and was unbearable to look at with the scan line frequency.

[eternal maple]

Also has me wondering about the display blanking signal (OE) timing and how the driver controls that pin.

[north mural]

Yes. My guess is they would have already optimized the driver with that datasheet experiment in mind.

I have no way to verify that though.

[eternal maple]

I’ll take a look at the driver code again tonight and see if this new information makes it less confusing.

… all in the name of my mantra: display brightness control for all the displays.

[north mural]

I do have palette fader in there but it’ll perform the same with or without it. I know PhilB has an open topic on some protomatter and rgbmatrix stuff which dan or melissa are porting into cp. all above my head. I just use whatever comes in cp and libraries.

[eternal maple]

Yeah, PaletteFader doesn’t do much if the bit depth is low and the palette was already optimized for brightness. Setting normalize=True might make a difference.

[eternal maple]

Waiting for that (currently fictional) S3 + FPGA MatrixPortal board.

[lone horizon]

not fancy, but functionl. Thermostat for my garage heater with buttons or web form to set the temperature.

[last bronze]

The calculator is fixed!

[last bronze]

Snatched another one, pre and post cleaning

[rancid kestrel]

I got KiCad to run on Android phones and tablets! Just don't be afraid to get your hands dirty: https://2231puppy.tech/posts/personal-setup/kicad-on-android/

[last bronze]

The end of the russian calculator's journey

Fixed and oiled

[wide brook]

oiled?

But it looks electronic! 😅

[burnt wyvern]

New computer monitor lol

Doesn't have the best colors. But I guess that makes sense since it is a TFT.

[last bronze]

Ze keyboard is a prime example of soviet spring mechanisms

[brave temple]

Can I get a picture of that with banana for scale?

[burnt wyvern]

"anything but the metric system" because bananas are a superior size comparison because you can eat them!

Also left in an even smaller OLED display I had lying around

[brave temple]

I'm making some cyberpunk jewelry (aesthetic - gonna wax seal a pico after I solder it and present the raw board as a part of the project) and so wanted scale comparisons of various lcds

[pallid saffron]

holy fritos! what pixel size is that? nm -- found 'em (64x48 .66") dang!

[north mural]

from tiny displays to huge displays. no matter what size you want, it's doable.

[pallid saffron]

indeed - have you seen videos of that (interesting?) new "video dome" put up in Las Vegas? it's.... impressive

[north mural]

yes i think the ruiz brothers showed it during a 3D hangout. That thing is unreal.